Ragi Masala Dosa

My kitchen has been seeing a lot of activity in January, the blog not so much. I am still in limbo about getting a new camera. Till then I am relying on my iPhone. 

And then I also realized something more this month, when I was reading Nupur's OHS, I have been reading only cookbooks or about baking. I haven't gone through the regular fiction at all, picked up books from a rack and enjoyed reading it at all. 

I have read cook books ( and I do love reading those, no complaints) and getting hooked to Netflix and watching some good and some senseless stuff. 

And I don't want that anymore. I'm going back to good ol' reading. Go back to reading page after page, chapter after chapter an turning pages , smelling the book... okay, that dd not come out right... creepy! 

But, you get the point.

This month I also experimented with baking an egg less cake and I am thrilled that it was a success! I am overcoming that hurdle too. It feels great. 

And after a long time, I made dosas. I really did. We love dosas but the grinding  daal and rice on a small mixie jar is no fun. I take shortcuts, a small one. I soak and grind the daal and just add flour to the daal paste. 

This time around, I used Ragi (Finger Millet) flour. The dosas are perfect. 

You need

1 cup skinned Urad Daal

2 cups Ragi flour ( easily available at the Indian store)

1 tsp Fennugreek seeds

Water as needed

Salt, to taste

Wash thoroughly and soak the Urad Daal, add the fenugreek seeds in plenty of water for 8 hours.

Drain the water and grind the daal to a smooth paste (to ensure a smooth paste, add fresh water as required).

Add the Ragi Flour and mix, adding water as required to get a pancake like batter.

At this stage, those who prefer to add salt to the batter, stir it in, mix well and leave the batter to ferment in a warm place.

If you haven't added salt tot he batter, add it at this stage and give the batter a quick stir, to incorporate. Do not stir too much.

To make dosa, heat a non stick griddle / tawa on medium high.

Take a ladle of batter and pour it in the middle of the tawa.

Applying gentle pressure, from the center, spread the batter in a large circle, to make a thin and even crepe.

Drizzle a scant tsp of oil, butter or ghee around the dosa and let it cook till crisp and brown (in this case, the shade in the picture above, the nutella like shade). Flip and cook on the other side for a minute ( I like my dosa well made- cooked on both sides)

If you are making masala dosa, flip the dosa over again ( because we have cooked it on both sides) add masala bhaji in the middle and roll into a log. If you prefer serving masala on the side, make a triangle ( or a cone- I can never do that) with the dosa and serve with chutney ( or this one or this ) and sambar.

For the MASALA: ( and you can eyeball the ingredients here)

1 large Russet Potato or 3-4 medium Red Potatoes , boiled, peeled and roughly mashed

1 medium Red Onion, quartered and thinly sliced

1 fresh Green Chile

1 dry Red Chile, broken into two

1 tsp. each, Chana Daal and Urad daal

Few Curry Leaves

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1/2 tsp Asafetida/ Hing

1 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Cilantro, finely chopped to garnish

A few Cashew nuts (optional)

1/4 cup frozen Green peas, thawed ( optional)

Heat oil in a pan.

Add mustard seeds, Chana and Urad daal.

As the mustard pops and the daals turn a golden brown, add cashew - if using and let it turn a light honey color.

Add the asafetida, chilies, curry leaves and turmeric powder. Add the sliced onion. Mix and cover until the onion is well cooked. adding a dash of salt when cooking the onion will speed up the cooking time. 

Once the onion is cooked, add the green peas and mashed potato. Add salt.

Mix well, cover and let cook for a couple of minutes. 

Take off the heat and garnish with cilantro.

The masala is ready to be stuffed ( or serve on the side) with the dosa.

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